Summer solstice
by sol113
Summary: This is a AU future fanfiction set in the Dark Angel universe- it uses some ideas from Shikastas Fable series of stories such as the human/transgenic war, the transgenics being a legitimate nation, the familiar war to name but a few.
1. Chapter 1

**THE SUMMER SOLSTICE**

**DISCLAIMER**

**I do not own Dark Angel, the characters, or ideas involved, nor do i own ideas attributed to Shikasta's Fable saga of stories, original characters like Nathan Bathory are mine though**

**CHAPTER 1**

**PROLOGUE**

_In the aftermath of the cult war (1) the world was thrown into chaos, governments of the past had fallen, new forces-organisations, governments, and cults had risen to dominate what was left, the most powerful forces sought out the secrets of improving soldiers (2) to dominate the myriad battlefields, and improving the human race to survive the earths increasingly harsh conditions, "artificial evolution" as it would be later known. _

_This was the era known as the genetic cold war..._

_Beneath the ocean, 5 miles off the New Aaru (3) coastline, night time..._

A manta class stealth fast attack submarine (4) sped through the inky black sea, its pitch black hull blending in with the surrounding darkness, its refractive armour skin masking it from the sonar systems that would otherwise have made this mission a truly suicidal prospect.

A hatch on the belly of the stealthy craft opened and moments later a torpedo shaped object emerged from the opening. As the sinister marine vehicle resealed itself and swam off undetected, the torpedo- like thing hurtled towards the coast at incredible speeds.

Ahead of the 'torpedo' lay a nightmare sight; mines, chained to the ocean floor, yet floating and bobbing in a flowing circle. The minefield stretched into the darkness creating an effective barrier of explosives. The torpedo seemed doomed... until it performed a series of precision manoeuvres that allowed it to dodge the floating booby traps. After a tense minute or so, the torpedo cleared the minefield and continued to its objective.

On a rugged, unforgiving cliff face on what was once known as the African continent, the torpedo emerged from the water. The top of the torpedo slid away like a canopy revealing that it in fact wasn't a torpedo, but a transport vehicle.

A man jumped out of the vehicle and looked around. Intelligence said this place wasn't patrolled due to the minefield and the dangerous cliffs- but it never hurt to be safe. After checking the area he secured his means of transport in a secluded cove, unpacked numerous gear and weapons, then removed the oxygen mask he was wearing.

As the lone stranger (obviously a soldier) removed his mask we realise it is a human looking male in his early twenties, he has dark brown hair, has a well-defined musculature, and his skin tone and facial structure makes his ethnic background hard to determine.

He looks up at the brutal, jagged cliff in front of him. _No stairs, no smooth path to follow. Gonna have to do this the unpleasant way._ He thought.

After securing his gear he commenced climbing the evil cliff, minutes later he was at the top.

He looks around the dark, forbidding rocky desert plains, lone shrubs and small plants being the soul examples of life in otherwise barren landscape. Said landscape was efficiently covered with a silenced 37 calibre pistol, an old US military military beretta (5), this wasn't a clue to the enemy that the intruder was American since between the pulse and the cult war, huge amounts of American firearms and weapons had flooded the world arms markets.

This is the man we will come to know as Liutenant Nathan Bathory codename Snapdragon.

After stashing his gear and checking to see if the rest of his equipment had survived the jump he heads off into the night-time darkness to begin his mission...

FLASHBACK

"Okay Nathan, listen up, the brass have finally given us authorisation to commence operation Arctic cloud (6). I have the official orders directly from the white house" announced colonel Lake, a short, scarred man, he looks both righteous and foreboding in the GREY CORES official (if top secret black ops units have such things) briefing room.

Sitting in a chair reading a newspaper (if there is such a thing in post cult war America, its once proud media replaced almost entirely with yellow journalism and propaganda) is the rookie special operative Bathory. "Operation Arctic cloud?" Bathory asks. He seems both confused and near giddy with excitement.

A nasal. High pitched voice leaps in.

"Why do they call it 'white house', it's a hardened underground bunker, its the third building to have the name (7), plus its probably not even white" commented Robert Rollins, the Grey cores weapons and technology specialist, (and a guy who considered himself the worlds greatest authority on everything even though he knew nothing about the subjects that Bathory didn't know) Bathory himself was annoyed by this seeming question of American policy, he was about to speak up about the morally beyond reproach-edness of the White house mark 3 but was interrupted by Colonel Lake and the continuation of his official briefing.

"About 2 years ago prodigy genetics scientist Hana Takagi disappeared from her home in Yokohama, several months later intelligence reported that she had been spotted in the rogue nation of New Aaru, presumably they kidnapped her to work on some special project for them. Just in case you missed it in the news Takagi is a scientific wunderkind and a genius in the field of repairing genetic damage, radiogenics and so forth. She invented various techniques for reversing genetic diseases caused by NBC weapons used during the cult war, and has significantly advanced the field of genetics and related sciences. Basically she is one of the worlds smartest people." Lakes face grimaced at the mention of the cult and their genocide weapons, his eyes seemed to travel elsewhere.

Bathory knew Lake had been a soldier during both the disgraceful human/transgenic war and the nightmarish cult war, no one ever asked the veterans of that war about their experiences during the horror that wiped out 61% of the planets human population- "humanities darkest hour" as it was later called.

Lake seemed to snap out of it and continued his professional and regal sounding briefing. "New Aaru is a rogue nation dictatorship that emerged after terrorists, mercenaries and other assorted questionable fellows annexed land that used to be South Africa that was at the time uninhabited- uninhabited that is because its local population was exterminated by the familiars genocide weapons," While the Americans had a vaccine for the snake venom based virus the cult used to test the "worthiness" of their children, the cult weren't total idiots and created various viruses, poisons and assorted insane mass destruction weapons that the world had no defence against. Third world countries were hit the worst, with great cities being turned into empty graveyards and whole ancient cultures that had stood for centuries being simply erased from existence.

Donald Holland, the units psychologist, and resident socio-political nerd as everyone called him chose this moment to jump in, " New Aaru has been rattling sabres and threatening other countries for years (partially due to its constantly failing harvests and economy almost entirely devoted to the military and the ruling class). It is believed that the reason for Dr Takagi's kidnapping is to build some kind of weapon to be used against neighbouring nations." "You mean like a virus that targets specific types of DNA?" Rollins inquired.

A chill swept through the room at the idea of bio weapons re-entering the world.

"We're not going to take that chance, our intelligence has discovered that Takagi will be transferred via convoy to a new lab to commence the next phase of whatever it is they're building. The convoy will be heavily guarded but it may be our only chance to rescue him and find out just what New Aarus plans for the future are."

"This is where you come in Nathan. You are this units' one-man infiltration expert. Your missions objectives are: infiltrate New Aaru, rescue Takagi and bring him home to America for questioning. Your have trained on how to pilot the Tiger tactical SDV (Swimmer Delivery Vehicle)." "I hope you didn't skip any classes since a scan of the ocean path you must take is swarming with mines. The tiger has an ink black electronic countermeasure system that should disable the mines sensors. Just don't test that by ramming any mines head on." Rollins deadpanned.

The colonel continued, "After retrieving Takagi you will exfiltrate by returning to the SDV, It has space and more than enough oxygen to get the two of you back to the sub." "This operation commences as soon as we reach point alpha 5 miles off the New Aaru coast. Remember one thing, if you are discovered, the military and government will deny all knowledge of you and this entire incident-there will be no heroic rescue." he warned gravely.

_The clock is ticking..._

END FLASHBACK

After an hour of traversing rough, ugly terrain he encounters rough, ugly looking men in basic desert camouflage, armed with wicked looking assault rifles. _Perimeter guards_, Bathory thought.

Some expert sneaking later and Bathory has passed the guards and is looking at a well-worn dirt traffic trail overlooking a huge gorge with a panoramic view.

After scoping the area out, he opens up a secure comm link with his support crew safely on the Jackal.

"This is Snapdragon (code name for Bathory), i've reached the observatory (code name for area where the convoy will be soon), the trail looks well worn, confirm that the convoy has not been through here yet."

Colonel Lakes voice responded over the comm channel, "That is confirmed; intelligence from inside New Aaru command says the convoy is approximately 90 minutes from your location. Unwrap presents and prepare for guests." After receiving the coded authorisation, Bathory descended from the hill from which he'd been hiding and planted several pyro class anti armour mines under an inch of soil. Pyro mines were powerful shape charge explosives that had sophisticated sensors that tracked both vehicles and personnel targets in the nearby vicinity, when they detected a target within optimum range they detonated with enough force to literally cleave a tank in two, in this case they would be used to destroy the leading vehicle of the convoy carrying Dr Takagi, the other vehicle would have to be taken out another way which caused some concern as the agent had no idea what type of vehicles the enemy would be using.

Moving to another position, 200 metres away and high above the trail Bathory activated his comm system again with a slight smile on his face, "Presents unwrapped, am in the kitchen waiting for the sausages to cook."

"Snapdragon, the final member of the support crew has made it to the party, she couldn't catch the flight but is with us in spirit, and over scrambled communication channels. You remember your old-mentor/friend Cecily Lecter don't you?" Lake replied accompanied by Bathory's shocked voice, "The commander... is there?"

"Hello, it's been a long time." Lecters strangely compelling, melodic voice seemed to... flow from the radio.

The usually unflappable Bathory was speechless. He didn't know what to say to the transgenic former member of the ill-fated revolutionaries of the Chimera civil war (8) and his... oldest and closest friend, an image of a hospital (9) appeared in his mind and he took a moment to compose himself then spoke up.

"It's been 11 months, 4 days, 17 hours and" looking at his watch "43 minutes since we last spoke... why'd you disappear after the attack on Colorado?"

"I was sent on a mission... and you didn't need me any more, you know everything there is to know about being an operative and a soldier, at least as far as knowledge and book smarts go... the only thing left was for you to enter the field and experience combat for real"

"...." Bathory was about to say something but thought better of it.

"One problem you have- is that you take things too personally, we're professionals who do a job, we do it without feeling or prejudice. If you can't fully separate your feelings from the equation, and think coldly and logically about things you endanger the mission, yourself, and everyone who depends on the job that you do: your comrades, the government, the country, the people."

"So... you think i'm... ready for this?" Bathory asked, almost hopeful.

"I do." She replied.

********

The convoy arrived. The time had seemed to have flown by due to his conversation with his... old associate. He frowned as he noticed the hardware they were driving, while intelligence warned that New Aaru were buying up serious firepower but approaching his position was an old M2 Bradley tank, followed by 2 Cheetah SUVs, a Rhino mobile command station (10) (where he assumed Takagi was), 2 more SUVS and an Israeli Leopard tank, the Rhino had 2 50cal turrets on top, the tanks all had soldiers hanging out on lookout they seemed to be more alert than would be expected.

_These guys aren't standard third world guns for hire_. The well hidden Bathory thought as he began tracking the rear guard tank through the sights of his impractically sized Naginata railgun, _This has to be timed perfectly timed, don't freeze or jump at the explosion. _

As if on cue, one of the pyro mines detonated, mutilating the Bradley tank in the lead and killing everyone inside. At the exact second of the explosion Bathory fired the Naginata, penetrating the Leopards fuel tank, lighting a spark and destroying the tank at the rear.

Now the convoy was trapped, nowhere to go with burning tank wreckage at both ends of the narrow road, not wanting to give the enemy time to regroup he fired the overpowered cannon again, and again destroying the 2 SUVs between the totalled Leopard, before he could deal with the others, a hail of bullets raked the ridge where Bathory was hiding, at least one bullet impacted the Naginata, disabling the notoriously unreliable weapon. Bathory rolled out of the turrets line of fire, _Dammit! It must be the turrets from the Rhino! He must have seen the damn flash from the railgun,gotta take him out!_

Pulling a Beretta machine pistol he did just that, with inhuman accuracy given he was 100 metres away he fired bullets squarely through the heads of both turret operators, then taking out the gunmen of the turrets of the 2 surviving SUVS, then they did something no one could have expected- they drove off a cliff.

Bathory was quick off the mark to follow them, covering the distance between his sniping spot and the ridge at unnatural speeds. He reaches the edge, _These guys are either really brave or really stupid._ Just after musing this to himself, one of the SUVs crashes through the uneven surface they are racing down, a second later all 3 vehicle roll over with one of the SUVs exploding, probably from a grenade unwisely activated. S_tupid_. Bathory confirms to himself as he carefully approached the overturned wreck of the Rhino and surviving SUV.

Several soldiers swarmed out from the unexploded SUV and the overturned Rhino, unlike what you expect from third world dictatorship goon squads they had some top rate equipment: M4 carbines, a P90, and military berettas, several of them were wearing plate armour like that Bathory saw the US military wearing during Iraq (11) in history books. Bathory noted this on a lower mental level as he killed the armour wearers with picture perfect head shots before they could really get their act together, several luckier soldiers opened fire but Bathory dodged the oncoming fire with speed an average eye couldn't follow and dispatched them with lethal, cold detachment.

A bullet through the skull took care of the last guard, who had chosen to stay inside the Rhino with the prisoner.

Bathory turned his attention to the female scientist cowering on the floor (or ceiling) of the overturned Rhino, she was dressed in nondescript clothing except for 3 separate coloured rings of beads around her neck. Recognising her from pictures shown in the earlier mission briefing Bathory asked her if she was uninjured in perfect Japanese. She stared at Bathory for a moment then spoke.

"You're an American." she stated in plain English.

"That's too good for a wild guess, how'd you know that?" Bathory asked, carefully keeping annoyance out of his voice. He gestured for her to follow him and they began the trek through the desert plains to the point where they would meet their air extraction.

_Time skip..._

"I heard several guards... talking about... American spies in the settlement, and some kind of operation taking place in the near future." The geneticist replied in a panicked tone whilst stumbling through the sandy/rocky terrain (they had to keep on the move to avoid enemy patrols and reinforcements).

_They knew about this operation? _Why _wasn't there more security here then? Or was it another_ _operation?_ (12) _Also, damn i wish one of those SUVs wasn't totalled. Seriously, how can a woman in_ _her twenties who looks very fit be so clumsy and sluggish?_ Bathory angrily thought_. _

Takagi interrupted before Bathory could ask these questions, "We don't have time for this! We have to get out of here before they come!" Bathory could see utter terror in the scientist's eyes.

"Wait. Who's they?" He asked.

_A frightened pause from the scientist._

"The New path cult (13), they are totally- insane, they have plans to attack the rest of the world with an army of neogenics! (14)"

That caught Bathory's attention, it caused him to grab Takagi's hand and practically ragdoll her through the dust, now almost choking due to a slight storm kicking up.

"Neogenics? As in humans who have their DNA altered long after birth to mimic that of Manticore made transgenics or the newgens?" Takagi nodded in confirmation, then continued, "They have hundreds of soldiers who have volunteered for the process, but altering DNA of adult humans on this scale is still far from perfect science, many don't survive the procedure, out of those that do, there is a spectrum of side effects ranging from physical deformities, to greatly decreased lifespans, to extreme mental problems-hallucinations, mood swings, even total insanity." She explained.

"I get it, they abduct you 'Ms God of genetics' to fix the side effects of the neogenic transformation process right?"

"Yes, fortunately, they haven't started converting all of their soldiers yet. But it's only a matter of time. Listen to me, if these- lunatics succeed in this plan, it will start a new war, a - world wide genetic war, they cannot go through with their plans without my help!" With that they picked up the pace, covering ground frantically.

Bathory activated his comm system and reported to the Colonel who had been listening in on everything that had happened since the convoy ambush.

After several minutes of traversing yet more rough, ugly, sandy, rocky terrain with occasional ruins of old African settlements and the odd plane wreck and destroyed vehicle Takagi had about finished explaining (in unnecessarily horrific detail) the pretty much apocalyptic war that would be the outcome of New Aaru's plans Bathory ordered a stop.

Bathory had a very sharp survival sense, t had served him well growing up during the cult war, he could actually sense when he was being watched or followed.

He was getting that sense now.

Bathory and Takagi had come to a dilapidated shack located only metres away from a sheer cliff to dark churning water 200 feet below.

"Aaaghh!"

A shot rang out and the rifle in Bathory's right arm was shattered by what had to be an armour piercing bullet, he whirled around to see a figure emerge from the foliage. The last person he ever expected to see opposing him.

Commander Cecily Lecter.

"Good job Nathan. But now Takagi comes with me."

No expression on her face.

Bathory stood there stunned for a moment then in a breathless voice asked, "W-what's going on here?"

"I'm defecting to the country of New Aaru and the New path organisation" she said bluntly, "And so i need Dr Takagi back."

"Back off! I will kill you" Bathory warned, managing to break out of his stupor, pointing a pistol at her.

"Wait. And observe."

Lecter held up a canteen full of water, suddenly what was obviously a bullet hole appeared in both sides of the container and water came rushing out.

"There is a sniper with a bead on you from an elevated position right now. If you make a move he will kill you."

Bathory looked around on reflex, but couldn't see the sniper, "Drop your gun." she ordered with no visible expression in her voice.

Not liking where this was going Takagi freaked out and bolted distracting Lecter for a milisecond. Bathory went for it and tried to take the newly declared traitor out and use her as a shield from the sniper who he calculated from the south of him.

This went badly wrong as Lecter, with totally inhuman speed, lifted her weapon, and shot out the pistol from Bathorys hand, then moved in to take him out.

Takagi, running like something was after her soul who was suddenly pulled off the ground like he weighed nothing at all by no visible force.

A vaguely human-looking creature covered with scars and surgery dissection lines suddenly appeared, it looked as though he had been surgically carved up a hundred times over, a traumatised expression that seemed melted on to its face and arms that obviously were non powered prosthetic. He? She? It? Stared at Takagi, "He...llo...there..." the thing hissed, sounding like it was high but no expression other than pain and horror appeared on its mutilated face.

The scream distracted Bathory for a millisecond giving an opening for Lecter to fly at him and punch him squarely in the solar plexus knocking the wind from his lungs, Bathory recoiled at the strike and was forced back at the flurry of powerful precision blows hurled at him, after a minute of frantic fighting Bathory hurled a badly mistimed punch that Lecter grabbed on to, with perfect execution she snapped Bathory's arm in two places. Instinctively pulling his arm back and lashing out with a kick he couldn't stop the kick being caught easily and snapped in a similar fashion. Off balance, he couldn't defend against a straight shot to his ribs hitting with such force it caused him to cough up blood.

As the fight continued with the American agent being beaten senseless he dimly realized he was being driven towards the edge of a cliff overlooking a raging river. Bathory's thoughts of the river were interrupted by a bone crushing snap kick to the chest and pain that alerted him to ribs giving way. .

The ground behind him suddenly gave way, but instead of going straight over the edge he found himself suspended in thin air held by Lecters right arm.

He quickly looked around and noticed the scarred, almost scarecrow like thing that invisibly held Takagi _a psionicist!?!_ (15) as well as several new arrivals: an armoured individual covered head to toe in some kind of greyish exo-armour, a type Bathory had never seen before that had various types of weaponry built into it, a giant... monster, the twisted thing couldn't be called human as it stood 10 feet tall with individual muscles the size of a normal mans torso, it had metal objects jutting out of its hideous body at seemingly random points, it had a bald head with grossly mottled greenish, reddish skin, looking like he had been cut up, and then burnt. The last newcomer held a sniper rifle _The sniper... he looked normal,_ except he had strange machinery where his eyes should have been _Visual implants._ Bathory surmised.

"The gangs all together again." the giant thing rumbled in a voice that sounded strangely like crunching gravel.

_The Defenders_ (16) Bathory realized. He had heard stories of their exploits during the cult war, and knew that Lecter was a member of the team, but he thought he'd never encounter them after their dissolution at the wars end.

Lecter looked into Bathorys eyes, an expression of sorrow flashed for a brief second, then was gone, "You can't come with us. You... don't belong here" with that she released him and he fell into open air.

As he fell Liutenant Nathan Bathory didn't scream or even think about what was below him he just stared at Lecter until he hit the water and everything went black...

and he saw a hospital... and screaming... and gunfire...and a boy...and chess...

**NOTES**

(1) Cult war- a one year long war between the ancient mystical cult known as the familiars and the rest of the world. Some call this war "World War 4" as it has involved every country on Earth and had the highest body count of any war in human history- between the use of NBC weapons, extermination camps run by the familiars, standard warfare, and collateral damage, 61% of the worlds population was killed.

(2) They're creating various types of super soldiers (Manticore style transgenics are amongst them) for warfare and defence.

(3) New Aaru is a rogue nation dictatorship that emerged after terrorists, mercenaries and other assorted questionable fellows annexed land in Africa that was left uninhabited after its local population was exterminated by the NBC weapons that were frequently used during the cult war.

(4) Manta- It is a fictional submarine- as well as being a fast attack craft and a mobile command centre it can be used to transport small amounts of troops and insert them into the battlefield (like it does in this story), it also has the capability to engage marine, ground and aerial targets with an armament including fully automatic guns, missiles (missile technology is smaller in this time period allowing subs to carry more missiles), and a cargo hold that can carry either higher yield weapons like nuclear tipped scimitars (replacements for the tomahawk), or thousands of pounds of bombs.

(5) Using this weapon isn't a clue to the enemy that the intruder was American since between the pulse and the cult war, huge amounts of American firearms and weapons had flooded the world arms markets.

(6) Arctic cloud was the first mission, it is botched by Lecter's defection, the later mission to kill Lecter, retrieve Takagi for the second time and destroy the Neogenic army is the second mission codenamed Summer solstice.

(7) The original white house was destroyed by the conspiracy involving Kinnane after the pulse, the second one was vaporised during the cult war.

(8) After the human/transgenic war a small number of transgenics attempted to seize control of the legitimate Chimera government, they nearly succeeded thanks to personnel and weapons from the American government. When the coup attempt failed the American government had to avoid humiliation by cutting any ties with the transgenics involved in the war, after the cult war however many of those same transgenics returned to what remained of America and resumed working for them (although the government denied it), transgenics from Chimera state considered them race traitors and many Americans despised them for myriad reasons, Bathory however had one known as Commander Cecily Lecter as a mentor during his teenage years and neither considered her a traitor or a freak of nature, in fact he was closer to her than his legal guardians.

(9) The "hospital" is a key to a part of Bathory's past, Lecter has a part in it too.

(10) Rhino- fictional, basically a combo of a Stryker vehicle, a company headquarters and a truck, armed with 50 cal turrets above its cab and back section and massively armoured.

(11) In my imagining of the human/transgenic war, American soldiers didn't have good armour due to the economic effects of the pulse, air support is affected too due to world fuel shortages.

(12) The "other operation" was Lecter's defection.

(13) The New path- a cult that serves as the ruling class of New Aaru, a country that used to be South Africa until the population was exterminated by the familiars biological and chemical weapons. They're the bad guys.

(14) Neogenics (originally human, later turned into something with some of the abilities of Manticore transgenics) they came into existence because after the poor performance of baseline humans in the human/transgenic war and the later familiar war, humans were forced to face the fact that human theory of physical superiority over all other life forms didn't hold up under testing.

(15) Psionicist- an idea i borrowed from a now-defunct Dark Angel RPG, they are individuals who have psychic abilities ranging from telepathy to pyrokinesis, psychokinesis, etc. As a side note there are castes inside the familiar cult who are psionicists.

(16) Defenders- my idea, they were soldiers augmented physically to battle with the familiars, there were originally more of them but most didn't survive the treatments that gave them their abilities.

**CHARACTER LIST**

**Liutenant Nathan Bathory**- The protagonist of the story, a member of the US military black ops unit code named Grey core. Previous experience includes conventional military service with the marine corps, 8 months with military intelligence (career explained as military desperate to make full use of every soldier after US military rendered non-functional after cult war). Captured by a rogue Manticore survivor during the war and experimented on, transformed into a human/transgenic hybrid making him an early example of neogenics (there is a lot more to it than that).

**Colonel Avery Lake**- The commanding officer of unit 1 (Bathory's unit) of the Grey Core, a seasoned veteran of both the human/transgenic war and the cult war. He lost all of his family in cult war.

**Robert Rollins**- Weapons and technology specialist of Unit 1, parents killed in cult war, Bathory's closest friend in the Grey core. Easy going personality despite annoying voice.

**Donald Holland**- Psychologist and tactician, spent time in a familiar extermination camp. Lives under the creedo "hope for the best, expect the worst".

**Dr Hana Takagi**- World- renowned genetics scientist, captured by the New path cult to work on neogenic soldiers.

**Commander Cecily Lecter**- a former member of the transgenic rebel faction led by Gabriel to take on Alec during the Chimera civil war. She meets Bathory during the cult war. Later serves as one of Bathory's instructors, betrays mission and joins rogue nation New Aaru, later revealed to be a double agent working for America.

**The defenders**- super soldiers created first to destroy the newly created transgenic nation. They were a contingency in the event that Gabriel, the titans and the rest of his rebel faction couldn't seize control from Alec McDowell and his supporters. Problems emerged when most of the volunteers for the transformation process were killed. The survivors later fought in the cult war becoming legends in the black ops community. Defenders:

Beholder- a psionicist with vast telepathic and telekinetic powers, as well as telecoersion (mind control), easily identified by horrific surgical scars across face and head. Volunteered for defender experiments after losing both arms in the human/transgenic war, both arms are plastic prosthetic (he won't use powered prosthetics due to a bad experience with electrics during the pulse).

Survivor- a marine mutilated during the first assault on seattle (the disastrous operation Mordecai) has had most of his body replaces with fully powered and armoured prosthetics with built in weapons(machine pistols on wrists, electro-magnetic deflecter shield generatef by armor((like judo)), sonics from voicebox, etc). Has violently obsessive personality, extreme perfectionalist.

Endurer- power comes from extreme mutation caused by injections of serums (some based on familiar blood samples) and horrific surgical reconstruction. Seems to be an extreme masochist. Rumoured to have once been held as a POW and brutally tortured, the same rumour was that the defender project picked him up from inside a mental institution.

Wanderer- formally a marine corps sniper who served in Iraq, volunteered for experimental bio-implants to replace his eyes after he was blinded by a suicide bomber. These implants allow him to see outside the human spectrum of vision, give him telescopic vision, etc. He also has alterations to his nervous system and frontal cortex making him an inhuman sniper.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2.1 THE SUMMER SOLSTICE **

**DISCLAIMER**

**I do not own Dark Angel, the characters, or ideas involved, nor do i own ideas attributed to Shikasta's Fable saga of stories, original characters like Nathan Bathory are mine though, i am not making a profit from this**

_**Unknown location, ruins of a small village by a river...**_

Darkness...

That, and numbing pain were all that Lieutenant Nathan Bathory was aware of.

"Wakey, wakey sleepyhead..." a gentle and slightly mocking voice whispered from out of the horrid darkness.

Bathory jerked up suddenly and immediately regretted it as his whole body burned with pain. The agony erupted from his arms, his legs, his chest, even his head.

Overall he felt like he had been run over by a car.

**A large car. **

**Like military humvee large. **

His vision cleared, he looked up at the woman, then backed off searching for a gun. Finding a handgun he pointed it unevenly at the still blurry stranger. "Who are you?" he angrily demanded trying to hide his dizzyness.

The shadowed stranger looked somewhere between hurt and annoyed, a tall, statuesque asian woman stepped into the light caused by a small fire, "I'm Juno, a pleasure to meet you. I'm the person who fished you out of a river then stitched you back together."

Bathory looked at the state he was in; covered in bandages and with some fresh stitches in his body. He flinched as blurred memories flashed through his head. "I assume you're having a gruesome medical flashback right now, yes?" The woman asked knowing the answer.

"But seriously, like you, i am an agent of the US. I was sent here five months ago to gather intelligence on the New path cult, my code name is Juno, authentication **seed094/92/611**. You can check it out with your superiors. I managed to fish your comm. system out of the drink as well." She pointed over to a comm. device that looked more run down than Bathory himself did. Juno looked sheepish, "I haven't got around to repairing it yet." She stated with a strange and annoying smile.

Bathory struggled to his feet and staggered over to the radio. He figured since he was still alive... and on dry land that she wasn't with the cult _'Or Lecter_...' he sullenly thought.

_**The next day**_

The agent lay inside a burnt out building that he assumed years ago was some kind of factory, inside a small, nameless village.

After investigating the surrounding area (after ignoring Juno's doctors orders to rest) he made the rather grisly discovery of a mass grave just outside the factory, judging by the amount of bone fractures the bodies had, he suspected that they were killed by the trembler virus (1).

There were no signs of any other bodies besides the single mass grave. Strangely this did nothing to enhance the agents mood.

Bathory had repaired his comm. Device late the previous day and sent several coded transmissions on emergency channels, however he received no response.

Rather than sit around and wait the commando looked around his temporary base for anything that could be of use to him; weapons, tools, chemicals that were flammable or explosive, anything that was potentially lethal really.

"There is nothing here that can be of any use, it must have been raided years ago." Bathory's new found female companion called out.

He returned from his brief scavenging mission to see the ever cheerful Juno cleaning an absurdly large jet black automatic pistol.

He was about to ask where she got it when the silence of the building was suddenly broken by a familiar beeping sound.

"Snapdragon, do you read me, over." Came the Colonel's distorted voice over the com.

"I believe it's been two days since your last communication with me Colonel, I was starting to think you didn't like me" Bathory sarcastically replied, he wasn't happy about spending so much time in the dark about the situation with the cult or what was thought about the failed mission to rescue Takagi back home.

He also wasn't happy about being fished out of a river like flotsam.

CUT TO COMMAND CENTRE OF SUBMARINE (NOTE THAT IT IS NEW COMMAND CENTRE OF THE MISSION)

The ever chipper Rollins chose to chip in, "With Lecter defecting and you getting ambushed and losing Takagi this whole mission has the potential to become an international crisis, even leading to a full scale war."

Bathory looked pained at his associate's comments "Well, thank you for breaking it down ever so gently Rollins".

"Before we go into delicate details" Subtly moving his remaining handgun towards Juno who responded by looking mock scandalized.

"Do you have reference to a female American agent codenamed Juno, (Bathory proceeds to give her authentication code....).

Several long moments passes before the response. Bathory stared at Juno who passed the time polishing a ridiculously large bowie knife.

"Snapdragon, the code has been confirmed. It turns out that the CIA managed to get a team into New Aaru about two weeks ago. It was them that originally found out about Takagi being abducted, then transferred."

"We have a full team inside New Aaru? That's great news." Bathory was getting happy for the first time in seemingly an eternity.

"Not so good. It looks like your friend Juno is the only one still alive. The rest were reported killed... the same day Lecter defected"

Bathory's heart sank, realizing his former friend and mentor was responsible for the deaths of American soldiers.

"Don't start brooding. It's not going to accomplish anything." Juno complained waving her knife at him.

Bathory broke his rapidly downward spiralling thoughts.

"That's Juno i take it? Her code checked out, so she should be able to be trusted, and you need all the help you can get."

A pause, then the colonel continued.

"After the failed mission to retrieve Takagi there are eyes upon the New Aaru region. As Rollins already said this has the potential to escalate into something far worse especially if Takagi's claims of an enhanced army are true. The last time the world faced a hostile not quite human military force was during the cult war, so you can imagine how tense the situation is with command."

A tense pause before Rollins once again spoke up.

"There has been talk about the top brass considering a tactical nuclear strike against New Aaru to eliminate any possibility of neogenic troops and while they are at it get rid of the defenders, another bit of history that the government would love to bury."

The colonel took lead again.

"Your new mission has **three** objectives: rescue Takagi, learn everything you can about this possible neogenic plot and the new path cult and stop it. In other words if you find out there are neogenics or technology devoted to its research and development you must destroy it **at any cost**. And lastly... eliminate the traitor Commander Cecily Lecter."

_Eliminate... the commander... just like that._ Bathory mused

Juno brushed a clump of imaginary dust off her clothes then spoke up, interrupting Bathorys' renewed brooding.

"Takagi is being held at a military base the cult has named **Dragon Core**. The territory between here and there is littered with landmines, and multiple lines of defence, it would be suicide to try getting past them. However you can dodge most of this by passing through a series of underground mines and tunnels- they go on for miles in all directions. They should bring you out within a couple of miles of the base," She hands Bathory a weathered piece of paper showing a series of tunnels some artificial, some natural looking.

"This map will allow you to get through. Don't lose it as the tunnels are a maze. Also keep in mind that the mines may be rigged with mines and other traps... and they were originally abandoned after several cave-ins, they are structurally unstable." She spoke the last sentence with a smile that looked like it was supposed to be reassuring.

It wasn't working.

"**This** is supposed to be the best way to get to the base?" Bathory said incredulously.

"It's safer than traversing miles of open ground patrolled by troops, helicopters, snipers and laid with hundreds of tonnes of landmines." She spoke with a frown.

Colonel Lake had been listening in on the conversation. "From the information we have it seems that the mines are indeed the safest way to get to the base she speaks of."

Suddenly Juno cut in.

"Are you sure that your transmission can't be traced?"

"It's on a coded frequency, which is top secret." He replied as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

Juno frowned at his naive belief.

The moment was interrupted by an alarming beeping sound going off.

"What is it?" Bathory looked at her questioningly.

"I set some automated sensors around the perimeter. We have guests." The female spy answered. "I don't suppose they followed your transmission?" She questioned.

"No, not this fast." Bathory defended.

"Colonel, i'll call you back in a few minutes... assuming i'm not dead, this is turning into a bad week for me." The agent cut the transmission...

TO BE CONTINUED...

NOTES

(1) Trembler virus- a biological weapon used by the familiars during the cult war. The virus gets its name due to the fact that it causes the victim to undergo violent seizures and spasm so hard they often shattered their own bones. This was assuming they didn't die from their internal organs liquefying first.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 2.2 THE SUMMER SOLSTICE **

**DISCLAIMER**

**I do not own Dark Angel, the characters, or ideas involved, nor do i own ideas attributed to Shikasta's Fable saga of stories, original characters like Nathan Bathory are mine though, i am not making a profit from this**

_**Italics means someone's thinking**_

Juno stood up producing a large sniper rifle that Bathory inexplicably hadn't noticed before.

"I suggest we split up and hit them from separate angles, you from the ground, me from the roof." Bathory agreed causing slight surprise at his trust in letting her out of his sight and onto the higher ground.

They both went to their tasks.

Outside a group of armoured men stalked towards the ruined factory, they wore desert camouflage and what looked like armoured respirators as masks, a distinctive hissing sound emanating from them.

Bathory took the first soldier, shredding his armoured respirator with machine pistol fire, the soldier making a horrible choking sound as he collapsed. Moving with speed increased by lethal narcotics the second soldier got close enough to swipe at Bathory with a knife. Only to miss and get a hole punched through his throat with a bullet.

_These guys are fast. They must be the strongman brigade (1) i've heard about.  
_  
A third enemy six feet from Bathory fell from along distance shot from Juno from the factory roof. Her third kill so far. Clearly she was a proficient sniper.

Before she could lock in another target, an explosion from behind rocked the prone sniper. She had set a concealed explosive in the stairway to the roof that had just been triggered. Her momentary distraction allowed one of the soldiers on the ground to zero in on her and unleash a spray of bullets. The female agent rolled out of the way just in time to avoid being shredded and crawled to another shooting point.

Even with no sniper support, Bathory managed to shoot down another brigade member before one of his team mates got close enough to stab at him with a bayonet. It missed and Bathory emptied the last of his machine pistols ammo into the drugged up killers helmet.

Yet another strongman brigade soldier crashed into Bathory after making a crazed leap from a nearby building, the New Aaru soldier hit the ground with enough force to shatter his forearms but he got back up like it was a minor inconvenience.

He shouldn't have bothered as soon as he got back up he was stabbed in the throat by a combat knife his opponent retrieved from his boot. Rather unnecessarily Bathory also kicked him in the head snapping his head upwards with enough force to snap his neck.

A silenced shot followed by a thump signalled the end of the battle. Bathory looked around and realised the last of the soldiers had been eliminated.

After carefully scanning the area Juno lowered herself from her rooftop and walked with surprising composure towards her comrade in arms.

"Now that we've watched each others backs in a fire fight, would you do something for me?" Juno asked.

"What?"

"What's your actual name?

Bathory straightened,obviously caught off guard by this "Names Bathory, Nathan Bathory."

She smiled "Nice to meet you, i'm Juno, Juno Suckmeoff." She stated with a straight face.

"W-what?!?" The other agent almost choked in shock.

"Just kidding." She replied sunnily "You were asking for it with the James Bond-esque name thing."

"..."

*******

An hour later...

Nathan Bathory was really getting sick of seeing ugly sandy plains. He had no company as he was ordered to maintain radio silence to minimise risk of being detected.

He and Juno had split up, after handing out weapons and equipment the female agent saying she had very important things to take care of.

Though she certainly wasn't telling 'her partner' about it.

Finally Bathory saw the hole in the ground that Juno said was caused by a collapse, it would lead him into the main series of tunnels.

As he approached he saw a glint from a nearby hill. Realizing it to be either binoculars or a sniper scope and with no cover around he did the only reasonable thing: swore in his head and bolted for the hole. A second after he dived headfirst in a chunk of earth behind him was blasted away.

_Must have been a sniper scope _He thought.

He quickly scrambled deeper into the mines giving adequate protection from the sniper, seeing three tunnels before him he thought back to the map he had memorised and headed for the left most passage heading deeper into the darkness...

Elsewhere a line dropped in through another hole in the ceiling moments later armed men rappelled down it, disconnected, broke into teams and began searching methodically searching for the invader that had dodged their incompetent sniper team above and the freakshow strongman brigade earlier.

This team had no drug cocktail fuel or state of the art equipment- they were simply men given guns, taught how to shoot at a couple of stationary targets, called heroes then sent off to kill things. The men had no problems with this.

The first man to make contact with their target was dead before he realised it.

A bullet through the head at point blank. Before said trooper hit the ground Bathory ripped the dead mans UZI from his hands and mowed down two hostiles with a third showing more sense than the drugged up super soldiers from earlier in the fact that he jumped out of the stream of death the American agent was spewing.

Another soldier leapt out of a side tunnel swinging at him with a rifle butt, Bathory dodged , cursing internally for allowing an enemy so close before shooting his leg, dropping him to the ground in a screaming mess. A second round to his temple shut him up.

The soldier he'd missed moments earlier spun out from his hiding place hoping to nail Bathory before he could redirect his attention from the fallen man. He was too slow and was shredded by more UZI fire.

Bathory examined both bodies and removed rifles and grenades from both. After examining his appropriated gear and determining it to be in full working order he set off again, knowing he would encounter more enemies.

As if reading his mind three more soldiers appeared; they fired wildly at him. Bathory leapt to one side shooting with both the stolen UZI and the MP5 Juno had given him earlier. All three soldiers fell dead. Bathory rolled and saw yet more new Aaru soldiers appear from around a bend. They opened fire in a full- auto barrage.

After narrowly dodging the storm of bullets he returned fire with superior accuracy; the soldier to the furthest right was struck through the throat dropping without a sound, the second tried to dodge but was still fatally grazed by the neck and head, dying seconds later.

Bathory was about to search the bodies for more supplies when from behind him a soldier wielding a impractically sized machine gun opened up filling the whole tunnel with fire. Bathory dived down a hole that seemed to be created by a cave in. He lobbed a grenade out of the hole after the wild fire had died down. A scream with the explosion informed the grenades owner that he had hit the mark.

The agent stood up and looked at the devastation he'd wrought. He felt like screaming in frustration as four more soldiers came running up from where the last soldier was now struggling to get up, the wounded soldier took this opportunity to pull out a hand grenade and lob it in Bathorys general location.

Bathory cursed like a sailor as the grenade sailed through the air towards him.

BOOM

The explosion rocked the chasm.

The entire roof came crashing down.

Bathory made a desperate dash for where he hoped the exit was as everything collapsed behind him.

After a mad dash he outran the collapsing caverns hoping the huge collapse had crushed the seemingly endless supply of soldiers in pursuit.

Being careful to check what was in front of him he stepped into a huge main cavern. It appeared to be several storeys tall with over a dozen tunnels leading off in all directions.

A deafeningly loud sound pierced the darkness. Bathory immediately recognised it as a AP-1 Needle (2). A tiny rocket propelled grenade screamed from out of the tunnel on the highest level towards the agent its tiny engine noise deafening in the echoing cavern.

With an ear shattering crash that shook rocks loose from the abandoned mines walls and ceiling it hit the ceiling of the tunnel Bathory had entered from, after missing a direct impact with its intending target by a mere 2 inches.

Several storeys above Bathory a large, man shaped thing covered in black metal crouched looking down at the smoke and debris that now covered the room like a fog.

The metal thing glared at a gauntlet like device (3) on his right wrist, which now smoked signifying that it launched the deceptively destructive rocket propelled explosive projectile.

The metal man straightened and stared dead ahead at the agent who immediately recognised his newfound company as the defender member known as Substance...

TO BE CONTINUED...

NOTES

(1) Strongman brigade- expendable soldiers that have been enhanced with Androstamine C, a more powerful and addictive descendant of the performance enhancer Androstamine. The SB require respirators due to respiratory problems caused by the drugs and are kept under control with regular drug intakes- if they go too long without a dose they become feral and a danger to everything around them- including themselves.

(2) AP-1 Needle- fictional weapon, a high explosive rocket propelled grenade that is the size of a pencil, despite its lack of size it can destroy a light armoured vehicle

(3) Gauntlets- Substance has large gauntlets on both forearms that have multiple weapons inside them. They reconfigure to change weapons in battle, think of them as a heavy arms swiss army knife.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 2.3 THE SUMMER SOLSTICE **

**DISCLAIMER**

**I do not own Dark Angel, the characters, or ideas involved, nor do i own ideas attributed to Shikasta's Fable saga of stories, original characters like Nathan Bathory are mine though, i am not making a profit from this**

Several pieces of burning rubble had hit Bathory like shrapnel burning and cutting into his still healing skin but the only thing on his mind was that Substance had to have been leading the troops that chased him into these caverns.

That, and that this guy was no joke, his powered armour had enough embedded firepower to take out a battalion of tanks.

Staring levelly at the black metal wearing soldier Bathory prepared for the worst. A split second later Substance raised his metallic arms to chest level and took aim.

Gauntlets on both arms rotated then locked on a different configuration than the Needle thrower.

Stubby, black objects emerged from the cyborgs forearms, instantly recognisable as custom designed machine guns.

"On guard." The metal plated killer spoke, in a tone that while mechanically distorted, gave Bathory the impression that he had a huge smirk on his face.

_Thanks for the warning. _Bathory thought wryly.

Moving his burnt, bruised and bleeding body as fast as it would go Bathory dashed for cover as the area he previously occupied was shredded by high power machine gun fire.

During his bolt across the cavern the agent threw a disruptor grenade (1) over his shoulder, hoping that his enemy was using computer tracking to follow him. This seemed to disorient the defender for a moment and Bathory capitalised by opening fire with his 'borrowed' UZI.

Each round from the UZI sent agony into the shrapnel lodged in his right arm. He aimed low trying to hit the gap in his armour between his knee joint and his thigh. Endless hours of target practice paid off and a round penetrated the gap causing a distorted hiss of pain to emerge from an armoured mouthpiece. Substance stumbled giving Bathory a clear opening. He hurled himself as fast as possible into the nearest tunnel, one that Bathory noted sloped upwards.

He went through everything Col Lake he had read about the defenders when they went rogue several years ago: _Originally he was a marine that was put on the disabled list after the first attack on Seattle during the human/transgenic war, operation Mordecai, a few weeks later he was picked up by some black ops unit_ _and offered a place in the defenders program, he had most of his body replaced with prosthetics and a fully powered exoskeleton..._

More gunfire from the armoured psychopath interrupted his review session. _He must have switched over to manual way to defeat a disruptor. _

A sharp pain in his right bicep told Bathory his frankensteinian opponent was a great marksman as he'd just been shot in the arm.

He emerged from the tunnel into another chasm, this one had a collapsed mine track with broken metal scaffolding down about a hundred feet below the ruined track.

The only routes of escape were climbing down the cliff (suicidal given that a homicidal cyborg was following), jumping across the chasm (possible given his abilities), or going back down the route he came. He scratched the last idea as he turned and saw Substance come stomping up the tunnel towards him, forearms of death pointed straight at him.

_He's fast for an armoured walking toaster oven._

A click told Bathory that his enemy had run out of bullets. However as he turned around he saw the bracelets on Substances arms rotate with a new device as the selected piece.

_Oh hell..._

A round was fired from the newly equipped weapon, missing its target as he leapt behind a metal mine cart. Bathory looked up from his shelter and realised the bullet was actually a hollow projectile filled with some type of powerful corrosive eating through metal and rock, he didn't want to see what that stuff would do to his skin.

As he grimly contemplated making a suicidal jump across the cavern the agent heard a scuffle of dirt, a loud crash and a deafening scraping sound. He realised with glee that his enemy must have fallen over, probably due to his injured knee. The sound was like music to the desperate agent- believing this to have bought him a minute or two.

He was about to jump the chasm when he looked to a closet on his right and saw a selection of chemicals. Including several that had explosive and flammable hazard symbols emblazoned on them.

_Hmm... it's not very safe having those down here..._

This did bring an idea to the agents mind...

The armoured super soldier known as Substance came crashing up the tunnel again, humiliated about losing many electronics and then falling over in the loose dirt and rock. So angry was he that he barely looked ahead for traps like mines.

At the end of the tunnel he squinted through his dirty visor. With no computer tracking or radar he felt like he had lost a limb. He saw on the other side of the chasm tip of Bathorys combat jacket sticking out from behind a large rock.

Switching over to rockets on his left gauntlet he fired and destroyed the rock in a hellish fireball.

He realised immediately that Bathory wasn't behind there. A bright light to his right caused him to turn into a horrible endless fire storm. Or at least those were his last coherent thoughts.

After seeing the bottles of flammable liquid Bathory had remembered that Substance, as a marine was mutilated by being trapped under debris unable to move as a fire moved towards him and irreparably burned him.

Hoping that he had a phobia of fire he lit one of the bottles and threw the flaming bottle at the armoured warrior. Despite his armour easily being very capable of protecting him from the flames completely, the defender panicked, began thrashing and screaming and backpedalled, right off the cliff.

His mechanically distorted screams assaulted Lt Bathorys ears for several seconds before being silenced by a horrific crash.

_Is it over? _He wondered._._

Bathory slowly walked over to the ledge Substance had gone over. He cast a quick glance over and saw the broken wreck below.

The frightening being once known as Substance had fallen a good hundred feet and landed on a very old but very sharp piece of mine track scaffolding. It looked like it had pierced his heart, killing him instantly.

As he studied the body from the ledge he briefly thought of saluting the former marine and war veteran.

Then he thought against it as the mechanical psychopath wouldn't have done the same for him.

Or so he believed.

Bathory set off into the darkness once again, wondering just where the hell he was in relation to the route he was supposed to take.

After nearly a half an hour (with no enemy contacts) Bathory saw the literal light at the end of the tunnel.

The exit to the abandoned mining system.

The agent breathed in deeply, feeling truly energised as he finally stepped out from the claustrophobic darkness of the mine labyrinth, into the bright afternoon sun...

NOTES

(1) Disruptor grenade- fictional weapon, generates a interference pulse that disrupts; radar and various other sensor devices. Similar to chaff except this has a reusable core which means it can be used repeatedly.


End file.
